Following its own national provisions, Bangladesh incorporated the international convention by enacting the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act 2013. Subsequently, the Government of Bangladesh formulated the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Rules in 2015 for clarification further to the Act of 2013. RPPDA on the rights and protection of persons with disabilities 2013 Rules 2015 Rules on the rights and protection of persons with disabilities 2015.
Background
The 2015 rules clarify the roles of the committees at various levels, the registration process for PWD and how the district committee will deal with complaints of discrimination and these respective committees will also decide the amount and standard of compensation. An assessment and review of the rights, capacity building and compliance procedure, together with gap analysis of the national laws in the light of the UNCRPD provisions, must be carried out. ASC works in partnership with CPJ to identify policy gaps regarding the rights and protections of people with disabilities.
Aim(s) and objective(s)
Methodology
In the absence of a final layout, much is left to speculation, again adding to the law's ambiguity. Personal mobility is discussed in detail in Clause 7 of the Annex to the RPPDA. Right to education is one of the basic needs as recognized in Article 15 of the Constitution of Bangladesh which is reiterated in the RPPDA emphasizing the rights of PWD.
Details of Focus Group Discussion
Key Stakeholders who participated in the FGD
Aim of the FGD
Recommendation(s) from the FGD relevant to this research
4 The victim or the accused should have the right to have a friend in court proceedings express her input in the trial. 5 Employment should not be based on a generalization of disability, if disability does not affect the particular line of work, this person has the right to seek employment like any other citizen.
Issue(s)
While the UNCRPD gives priority to this right, it also emphasizes the need for a 'Universal Design' for all in addition to the PWD's right to personal mobility. It is commendable that the government of Bangladesh has included this right in its laws addressing the rights of the PWD. However, the RPPDA lacks procedures on how to make various rights mentioned in sections and other provisions accessible to PWD. Movement restrictions due to age also do not fall within the scope of the law.
The adaptation of the UNCRPD is not limited to adopting a national law, rather it is an evolving concept that needs to be developed and publicized through. Furthermore, Section 16 of the RPPDA in Bangladesh states that access to health services is also a right for a PWD. Although section 9 of the schedule to the RPPDA includes that staff in the education sector dealing with the disabled must be trained, section 26 of the RPPDA does not mention any special training or sensitization of persons working in various committees.
While the Constitution of Bangladesh recognizes employment as one of the rights, the RPPDA strives for the same goal, and in this case more specifically for the disabled. As one of the fundamental principles from b) of Article 15 of the Constitution, the state should provide its citizens. Furthermore, career progression as mentioned in the UNCRPD is also not considered in the RPPDA and the attached list, which is significantly mentioned in Article 27 of the UNCRPD.
The Constitution of Bangladesh as well as the UNCRPD recognize that all persons are equal before and under the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law. This provision can be read in accordance with article 13 of the UNCRPD which emphasizes the ways to effectively ensure access to justice. To ensure accountability of the committees, Disability Rights Commission will serve the role of an oversight body.
Debureaucratization of the 'complaints procedure' according to which judicial power should belong to the judiciary instead of executive committees. Bangladesh under Section 17 of the Act of 2013 and will be chaired by the Minister of Social Welfare.
Key Stakeholders who can work on these above recommendations
Accessibility
Universal Design
As the UNCRPD emphasizes, the government of Bangladesh should have a 'universal design' available to all to ensure accessibility. The question that now arises is how the government of Bangladesh can integrate “universal design” at all levels for PWD. The following steps can be taken to create policy and institutional frameworks for adopting 'universal design'.
Personal mobility
Training people dealing with persons having disability
Administrative Procedure
The National Coordinating Committee, National Executive Committee and other sub-committees formed under the RPPDA undeniably play the most important role in implementing the rights and protections of PWD. However, the accountability of such a committee is questionable as no such provision is mentioned in this RPPDA. Even though the RPPDA recognizes discrimination against PWD as a crime that can be dealt with under the Code of Criminal Procedure of Bangladesh (CrPC).
There should be terms of reference for the committees, which should contain provisions on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of said committees. In this way, the committees also gain legitimacy in the eyes of the aggrieved, as the committee must also be accountable to a higher authority. Although stated in paragraph 15 of the draft progress report prepared by the Government of Bangladesh and submitted to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in April 2017, a Disability Rights Commission separate from the National Human Rights Commission has been formed in Bangladesh.
This Disability Rights Commission is responsible for ensuring PWD's rights and privileges on an equal basis with others. The Commission may also be given the separate responsibility of a watchdog, to ensure proper implementation of national legal provisions, as well as the complaints body where injured persons with disabilities can appeal against previous decisions of the committees. This Committee on the Rights of Disability will thus act more like an Ombudsman and will ensure that committees, including the National Coordinating Committee, are accountable to it for its actions.
The National Coordinating Committee, which is the most superior committee in the hierarchy of committees, may also have a role in monitoring and overseeing other subordinate committees established under the RPPDA and will function in accordance with a terms of reference that accountability and accountability are included. transparency.
Education
Work and employment
And the RPPDA incorporates the international provision in Section 16 while adhering to the fundamental principle as mentioned in the Constitution that a PWD will enjoy the right to employment both in the private and public sectors, with reasonable accommodation to them as extended by Section 10( d ) in the form for RPPDA. It is noteworthy that the RPPDA ignores slavery or forced labor as mentioned in the UNCRPD regarding employment. As this Act is the guiding law in Bangladesh for the disabled, this Act would have been more enriched if it included all measures taken for the right to protection from slavery or forced labor performed by this particular category of people who may not have some understanding of the type of work they do in some cases.
The RPPDA fails to follow the international standard as mentioned in Article 26 of the UNCRPD for the protection of the rights of PWDs, on an equal basis with others, to fair and favorable working conditions, including equal opportunities and equal remuneration for work with equal value, safe and healthy working conditions. This law, again, completely leaves out the right of PWDs for protection from harassment and correction of complaints in case of employment. The RPPDA in Bangladesh emphasizes the protection and benefit of the law by imposing criminal penalties in order to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability.
The RPPDA can be a step towards establishing the rights of persons with disabilities, which are enshrined in the constitution. From a legal point of view, the victim has a limited role in criminal proceedings and the state appoints the prosecution on behalf of the complainant to handle the case. Moreover, the problem of leaving the authority to the district committee to investigate a complaint of discrimination and provide compensation, in a way gives the executive authority judicial power, which risks being unconstitutional, as it is said to violate Article 22 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia. The People's Republic of Bangladesh, which requires the state to ensure the separation of the judiciary from the executive organs of the state.
Leaving power in the hands of the executive committee is also a violation of natural justice, as one of the key principles of the rule of natural justice is that 'no one should be a judge in his own case' (in Latin nemo judex in causa sua), but in this case the executive bodies are the judges of their peers. It should be noted that Article 12 of the UNCRPD requires states to ensure that all measures relating to the exercise of legal capacity provide adequate and effective safeguards to prevent abuses in accordance with international human rights law. This article requires states to implement measures related to the exercise of legal capacity that respect the rights, will and preferences of the injured person and are free from conflicts of interest and undue influence.
India, which is a neighboring country of Bangladesh, has an office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities which deals with the complaints of persons with disabilities and takes necessary steps to resolve these complaints. The RPPDA is a great step forward as a first step, but it is clear that more needs to be done to fulfill the ultimate goal of the Act and materialize the aspirations of creating an inclusive society as envisioned in the Bangladesh Declaration of Independence.
